David Freiberg

David Freiberg
Freiberg as a member of Jefferson Starship in 1976.
Background information
Born (1938-08-24) August 24, 1938
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Genres Psychedelic rock, folk, progressive rock, acid rock
Instruments
  • Bass guitar
  • vocals
  • keyboards
  • guitar
Years active 1960s–present
Associated acts Quicksilver Messenger Service
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Starship

David Freiberg (pronounced FRY-BERG) (born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship.[1] Among other tracks, he co-wrote "Jane," a hit for Jefferson Starship.[2]

Career

Singer-songwriter

Classically trained in violin and viola, Freiberg began his career moonlighting as a coffeehouse singer-songwriter (playing acoustic guitar) during the American folk music revival while working for a railroad.[2] For a while, he shared a house in Venice, California with David Crosby and Paul Kantner[3] before being briefly jailed for marijuana possession. Prior to being incarcerated, he also became acquainted with Dino Valenti, then Crosby's nominal roommate on a houseboat in Sausalito, California.[4] During his time as a coffee house folk singer, he was part of the duo David Michaela.[2] David & Michaela made a demo at CBS studios, and "Elektra producer Paul Rothchild proposed fitting them into a bigger folk group. But the onset of the Beatles spelled the end of David & Michaela, and incentive for Freiberg to switch to rock and electric instruments."[3]

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Following his release, Freiberg co-founded Quicksilver Messenger Service with guitarists John Cipollina, Jim Murray and Gary Duncan and drummer Greg Elmore.[3] The founding took place shortly after Valenti, who had recently hired the musicians for his backing band following the folk rock explosion, was imprisoned for drugs in 1965. Due to the surfeit of guitarists in the group, Freiberg (who was only tangentially acquainted with his bandmates through their mutual friendship with Valenti, with Cippolina remarking that they had been instructed to "take care" of him) was assigned the bass.

Founding the band in 1965,[5] he became the "most folk-rooted member" of Quicksilver. He played guitar and keyboards, and reworked a number of songs for the band.[3] He also shared lead vocals with guitarist Gary Duncan and played bass.[5]

He brought Hamilton Camp's "Pride of Man" to the band, which became its signature song.[2] He would play on all six Quicksilver albums.[2]

Though not as commercially successful as contemporaries like Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver was integral to the beginnings of the San Francisco sound. In addition to earning three Billboard Top 100 hits, several of their albums ranked in the Top 30 of the magazine's album chart. He continued to serve as the group's bassist and contribute to the band's songwriting until September 1971, when he left the group to begin another prison sentence for marijuana possession.[6] With Quicksilver, he was known for co-writing "The Fool" and "Light Your Windows" with Gary Duncan.[3]

In the early 1970s, he played on If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby and Rolling Thunder by Mickey Hart.[3]

Jefferson Airplane

Shortly after being released in 1972, Freiberg joined Jefferson Airplane at the behest of Kantner, belatedly replacing Marty Balin for the tour that promoted their final studio album (Long John Silver). He subsequently appeared on Thirty Seconds Over Winterland (1973), a live album culled from the tour.

He was hired to tour with Jefferson Airplane after it had been active for some time, playing tambourine and singing harmony vocals.[3] He also filled in for departed lead singer Marty Balin.[5] After Jefferson Airplane disbanded, Freiberg, Kantner, and Slick made the Baron Von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun album in 1973.[5]

Jefferson Starship

After a long interregnum in which the fate of the band was in question (forcing Freiberg to briefly draw unemployment after RCA Records rescinded Jefferson Airplane's salaries), the final Jefferson Airplane lineup reformed as Jefferson Starship in early 1974 following the departure of lead guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and bassist Jack Casady. He remained with this group for nearly eleven years, departing shortly after the formation of Starship in late 1984 due to creative differences over the selection and recording of "We Built This City" with Grace Slick (who, according to longtime manager Bill Thompson, considered Freiberg to be "dead weight") and the atypically outsized role of producer Peter Wolf; during this period, Wolf had effectively superseded Freiberg as the band's principal keyboardist in the studio and select live performances.[7][8][9]

Although Freiberg (who generally played keyboards) and fellow multi-instrumentalist Pete Sears (who generally played bass) frequently alternated on both instruments throughout their respective tenures in the group, Ben Fong-Torres noted in a 1978 profile of the group that "Freiberg considers himself primarily a bass player."[10] He elaborated upon this distinction in a 1997 interview with John Barthel: "I am not really a keyboard player. I use it for input to a computer now, and stuff like that, but it never was my instrument. I just did it for writing songs because it is a musical typewriter, basically, that is what it is."[8]

Never a prolific songwriter and characterized by Fong-Torres as "essentially a back-up musician"[10] in Jefferson Starship, Freiberg notably served as the primary composer of "Jane."[11] According to Rolling Stone, after Balin and Slick left the band, Freiburg's contribution of the track "Jane," about an old girlfriend, "was instrumental in moving them into a more commercial, harder-rock direction."[5] The track became Jefferson Starship's first hit.[5] "Jane" was a #14 hit for the group in 1979 at a crucial juncture immediately following the departures of Slick and Balin and the integration of Mickey Thomas. It has since been prominently showcased in the 2009 video game Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and as the opening theme of the Wet Hot American Summer franchise.[11]

Freiburg also developed the "distinctive" organ riff of Balin's "Miracles," the group's most successful single.[11]

He left Jefferson Starship in the 1980s after their hit "We Built This City", which was synthesizer heavy. Says Freiburg, The only thing real on that song were the vocals and the guitar. I was useless, so I left."[2] He also clarified that “It completely turned away from anything organic, and it wasn’t really what I did.” He afterwards built a studio in Marin County to work with local musicians.[5] According to Bruce Arnold of Orpheus, "He has developed a wonderful way of recording my acoustic guitar and has a $100,000 voice mike that will make anyone sound good."

He was the only member of Quicksilver Messenger Service to participate in the majority of the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra records (a series of solo albums and unreleased recordings by Crosby, Kantner and others that drew upon much of the era's Bay Area-based talent) and briefly provided uncredited accompaniment for Ace of Cups, a groundbreaking all-female San Francisco band.

Jefferson Starship: Next Generation

After a two-decade hiatus, Freiberg rejoined Kantner in Jefferson Starship: The Next Generation for their 2005 tour, mending a rift stemming from Freiberg's initial refusal to leave Jefferson Starship with Kantner in 1984.[9] The tour was billed as "The Jefferson Family Galactic Reunion".[12] According to Freiberg, Kantner had been "absolutely right" in leaving Jefferson Starship in the 1980s, and he "apologized." He became a permanent member of the reformed band.[5] He appeared on the 2008 album Jefferson's Tree of Liberty.[5]

Freiberg held his first solo show in 2007 on November 24 in the lounge of the Ledson Hotel on the Sonomoa Plaza. He performed a number of songs not played live before. In 2007, he was still performing in Quicksilver, and he toured alongside Paul Kantner in the then current Jefferson Starship.[2]

In April 2017, the current members of Jefferson Starship were sued by former lead guitarist Craig Chaquico for not retiring the band's name in the aftermath of Kantner's death.[5] According to Chaquico, the band had previously agreed to retire the moniker in a 1985 settlement.[13]

The band was still touring in July 2018,[14] with Freiburg singing lead on tracks such as "We Built This City".[5] At age 79, Freiberg remained the only active original member in the band.[15] In November 2018, Freiberg is collaborating with the Dayton Symphony.[15]

Once described as "the nicest guy in the San Francisco music scene," Freiberg holds the singular distinction of having been associated with more of the original San Francisco bands than any other individual. He also maintained equally strong connections to the Grateful Dead; in addition to playing on their intramural baseball team, Freiberg has frequently collaborated and performed with Robert Hunter and Mickey Hart.

Personal life

In 1966, Freiberg married Julia "Girl Freiberg" Brigden; they had a daughter, Jessica.[16][17] Following their divorce in 1979, Freiberg was remarried to singer Linda Imperial in 1990.[2]

Around 1968 he moved into a house in Novato that had previously been rented by Bob Weir and Ron McKeman.[5] He and his family reside in the same house Marin County, California, where he has built a recording studio[2] and practices Soka Gakkai.

Rolling Stone has described him as "Starship's most outwardly easygoing member."[10]

Discography

Quicksilver Messenger Service

Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Paul Kantner/Grace Slick

Other

Year Album Collaborator Comment
1971 David Crosby If I Could Only Remember My Name
1972 Mickey Hart Rolling Thunder
1973 Jack Traylor & Steelwind Child of Nature
1974 Robert Hunter Tales Of The Great Rum Runners
1975 Tiger Rose
Ned Lagin Seastones
1976 Mickey Hart Diga

References

  1. ↑ Fenton, Craig. Have You Seen the Stars Tonite: The Jefferson Starship Flight Manual 1974-1978 & J.S. The Next Generation 1992-2007 (2008) ( ISBN 978-1438245348)
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Paul Liberatore (November 16, 2007). "David Freiberg is Marin's stealth rocker". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved January 22, 2010. ("... Marin's most unrecognized rock star. ... Now a youthful-looking 69 ....He's been married for 17 years to singer Linda Imperial")
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Unterberger, Richie. "David Freiberg". Allmusic.
  4. ↑ Zimmer, Dave & Diltz, Henry. Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography p. 23 (2008)( ISBN 978-0306816154)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Browne, David (August 24, 2018). "Veteran Frisco Rocker David Freiberg on Keeping Jefferson Starship's Legacy Alive". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  6. ↑ "John Cipollina; Founder, Mainstay of Rock Group Quicksilver Messenger Service". Los Angeles Times. June 2, 1989. Retrieved January 22, 2010. ("...which he formed with guitarist Gary Duncan and bassist David Freiberg in 1965, he continued to perform.")
  7. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=TKyYNB0pGIoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=got+a+revolution&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi77dm-r5_PAhXGFz4KHZzoByUQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=dead%20weight&f=false. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2011-10-13.
  9. 1 2 Jim Staats (September 28, 2006). "Starship ready to blast off Saturday at Novato concert". Marin Independent Journal. Retrieved January 22, 2010. ("Freiberg joined the last Jefferson Airplane tour in 1972 and became an original member of Jefferson Starship in 1974.")
  10. 1 2 3 "Can Marty do it on the road and will Grace get fueled again". Rolling Stone.
  11. 1 2 3 https://books.google.com/books?id=TKyYNB0pGIoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=got+a+revolution&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi77dm-r5_PAhXGFz4KHZzoByUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=organ%20riff&f=false. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "Jefferson Starship soars to 'Galactic Reunion". Observer-Reporter. February 17, 2006. Retrieved January 22, 2010. ("rejoining, actually, after a two-decade hiatus - is David Freiberg, who put in a decade with the band...")
  13. ↑ "Court Case" (PDF). United States District Court - Northern District of California. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  14. ↑ Whisnand, Charles (July 11, 2018). "Jefferson Starship flies at Concert Under the Stars". Nevada Appeal. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  15. 1 2 Rydzynski, Michael (July 19, 2018). "Jefferson Starship books a psychedelic rock trip to the OC Fair". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  16. ↑ Selvin, Joel (1994). Summer of Love: The Inside Story of LSD, Rock & Roll, Free Love, and High Times in the Wild West. Durron. pp. 272–3.
  17. ↑ BRIGDEN, JULIA. "Summer of Love: 40 Years Later / Julia Brigden (Girl Freiberg)". sfgate.com. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
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